After Lost and other productions by this team however, I do put some faith into their brand. Perhaps I'll give the premiere another try or wait until the show is over and get a sense of what the general consensus is.

The Fringe team isn't the Lost team other than Bryan Burk and JJ Abrams. And Abrams may have his name on a bunch of shows, but he hasn't been the creator of any of them for a while. He often lends his name to shows he thinks he would personally enjoy to help them get going.